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Friends for Therapeutic Equine Activities offers an alternative activity to children and adults with both physical and mental disabilities. Interaction with therapy horses evokes a response in participants unlike any other.
Our program is open to challenged individuals without regard to race, gender, national origin or religious belief. Prospective participants are screened for qualification based on our current guidelines. The contraindications of NARHA are part of these guidellines. We are a NARHA Premier Accredited Center. Through its accreditation process, the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) promotes equine facilitated therapy and activity programs in the United States and Canada. NARHA is a membership organization that fosters safe, professional, ethical and therapeutic equine activities through education, communication, standards and research for people with and without disabilities. All our instructors are NARHA Certified or working toward their certification. Our horses and ponies have been carefully selected and trained to safely work with participants. Lessons are offered on weekdays and Saturday. They are 45 minutes in length and usually consist of three or four participants, generally. Each new participant is evaluated and starts with a support team in place. A horse leader, side walker(s) and a carefully chosen horse or pony. Basic horsemanship is taught where appropriate. Our program is not like a craft class or other extracurricular program where there are designated steps from start to finish. Each participant is treated as an individual and the riding session is structured to meet that person's changing needs.
The majority of our participants are children, so we work very hard at keeping therapeutic activities fun. We play many games that involve interaction with the horses and people, and it may appear that we are fooling around, but each game/activity has a purpose behind it. That is how we make it enjoyable for the children, who just think they are having fun on a pony.
The program is accessible through affordable fees. The paid fee accounts for less than half of the actual operating costs of each lesson. Fees for each session vary due to length of session and holidays.
If you or your child is interested in participating, you may reach us by phone 630-588-8543 or by email info@ftea.org to inquire about the program's guidelines for acceptance, class availability and fees. If you email us, please include some history of the individual, so that we can identify contraindications, if any.
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